Mechanical apparatus for displaying electrical phenomena or the like



Dec. 29, 1959 E. R. JAHNS 2,918,894

MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA OR THE LIKEFiled Oct. 16, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 DE Q QUSQLOQ!) Ill.

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Dec. 29, 1959 I JAHNS 2,918,894

v .MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA OR THE LIKEFiled Oct. 16, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 T ,/52 I 1 55 /5 2a 48 [DWQQD 1QJQA/A/S INVENTOR.

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MECHANICAL APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA OR THE LIKEApplication October 16, 1958, Serial No. 767,611

2 Claims. (Cl. 116124.1)

This invention is related to mechanical apparatus for displayingelectrical phenomena and, more particularly, to new and usefulmechanical apparatus for stereophonic high-fidelity amplifying equipmentfor indicating visually to the operator the frequency responsecharacteristics of two electrically separate but stereophonicallyrelated amplifiers, with particular reference to both the bass andtreble response characteristics of each amplifier.

United States Letters Patent No. 2,841,110, entitled, MechanicalApparatus for Displaying Electrical Phe nomena or the Like, was issuedto the same inventor and assignee on July 1, 1958 for a similar device.However, the apparatus disclosed therein related only to the visualindication of frequency response characteristics of a single amplifierfor high-fidelity equipment and could not be used to separately indicateboth bass and treble response characteristics of two separateamplifiers.

There are certain problems involved in control of highfidelityequipment. Even with equipment having a single enclosure for the speakersystem and a corresponding single amplifier system, the average personis unable to aurally distinguish bass and treble responsecharacteristics to a suificient degree to assure proper adjustments ofthe amplifier system. This problem obviously is enhanced many fold inthe case of stereophonic systems not only because of the simplemultiplication of speaker and amplifier systems but also because of thenecessarily separated locations of the speakers. For convenience of bothoperation and manufacture, the bass and treble controls should begenerally located in physical association with only one of the speakersystems. Thus, not only does the operator stand closer to one speakersystem than he does to another so that he hears the sound from theseparated speakers with unequal volume, but also he is not locatedwithin the allowable spatial range for proper reception of stereophonicreproductions and hence cannot make correct bass and treble adjustmentsin accordance with his aural responses alone. Further, stereophonicreproduction often requires bass boost and treble roll off adjustmentsfor one amplifier-speaker system and bass boll off and treble boostadjustments for another amplifier-speaker system; such adjustments areextremely difiicult to accomplish when reliance is placed solely uponaural perception.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide simpleand inexpensive mechanical means, mechanically actuatable, for visuallysimulating selected electrical phenomena such as both bass and trebleresponse characteristics of two high-fidelity amplifiers which areelectrically separated but aurally related for stereophonicreproductions.

According to the present invention, there is associated withhigh-fidelity receiving equipment, for example, a graph Which exhibitsrectangular coordinate axes of first and second electrical conditions.Associated with the aforementioned graph are at least two flexibleindicating rods each having a minor portion thereof fixedly disposednited States Patent i 2,918,894 Patented Dec. 29, 1959' with respect toa' point or area on said graph and a major portion thereof adapted forselective displacement in a plane parallel to the aforementioned graph.Means are provided for accomplishing such selective displacements of themajor portions of each of the indicating rods, such means beingmechanically coupled to respective electrical controls, actuation ofwhich controls results in electrical phenomena as shall be physicallyindicated by the indicating rods in their disposition with respect tothe graph. Thus, in the case of stereophonic high-fidelity receivingequipment, the coordinate axes of the graph represent gain versusfrequency and the displacement of each of the indicating rods withrespect to the graph is responsive to the adjustment of the bass andtreble controls related to each separate amplifier-speaker system.Hence, the operator of the equipment can readily determine not only therelative bass and treble settings for a particular amplifier but alsothe relative bass and treble settings of one amplifier with respect toany one or more amplifiers, all being done by visual indications withoutdependence upon aural responses.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended claims. The presentinvention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood byreference to the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic frontal view of apparatus in accordance withthe present invention, the chassis and other parts, such as cover andmounting plates, being eliminated for clarity of illustration.

Figure 2 is an enlarged front perspective view of a part of theapparatus illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged frontal view of one of the slider elements.

Figure 4 is a side view of the element illustrated in Figure 3 as seenfrom the right side thereof.

In Figure 1 is shown a graph 10 having rectangular coordinate axes 11and 12 representing frequency (in cycles per second) and gain (indecibels), respectively. Frequency and gain increments are identified byappropriate numerals, as are shown on the graph. Flexible indicating rod13 includes a bass major portion 14, a treble major portion 15, and acentral minor portion (not shown) secured behind and by mounting member16 to the chassis. Flexible indicating rod 17 includes bass majorportion 18, treble major portion 19, and a central minor portion (notshown) also secured behind and by mounting member 16 to the chassis. Theend regions of bass portions 14 and 18 of flexible indicating rod 13 and17, respectively, cooperate with C-shaped finger portions 20 and 21 ofthe slider elements 22 and 23, respectively. The end regions of trebleportions 15 and 19 of flexible indicating rods 13 and 17, respectively,cooperate with C-shaped finger portions 24 and 25 of slider elements 26and 27, respectively.

Figure 2 shows the mechanical apparatus seen on the right side of Figure1 disassociated from the rest of the apparatus for the sake ofconvenience of illustration. In Figure 1, certain of the elements arevisually in line with each other; viewing Figure 2 in conjunction withFigure 1, it can be seen that idler wheels 28, 29 and 30 are rotatablymounted upon axis pins 31, 32 and 33, respectively, and that idlerwheels 34, 35 and 36 are similarly mounted upon the same axis pins 31,32 and 3'3, respectively. Guide wire 37 is secured to element 26 at hole38 and then passes consecutively over idler wheels 29 and 30, drivewheel 39, idler wheel 28, and then is secured to the opposite side ofelement 26 at hole 40. Guide wire 37 may be either in frictionalengagement with drive wheel 39 or else have two ends tied to drive wheel39, with several turns of wire lapped about wheel 39 in a manner notshown but Well known in the art. Axis pins 31, 32 and 33 are immovablysecured to the chassis (not shown). Drive wheel 39 is secured to drivepin 41 which is rotatably mounted upon the chassis. Secured to drive pin41 is driven gear 42 which is in driven engagement With drive gear 43.Drive gear 43 is secured to inner concentric drive-shaft 44, as is firsttreble control knob 45. First treble control element 46 is secured tothe chassis and is internally varied in its electrical values byrotational displacement of shaft 44 through rotational movement ofcontrol knob 45 for variation of the treble response characteristics ofa first amplifier. Outer concentric drive-shaft 47 is secured to secondtreble control knob 48 and drive wheel 49. Second treble control elementSt) is secured to the chassis and is internally varied in its electricalvalues by rotational displacement of outer concentric drive-shaft 47through rotational movement of knob 48 for variation of the trebleresponse characteristics of a second amplifier. In a manner well knownin the art, outer concentric drive-shaft 47 is rotatably secured to thechassis and inner concentric drive-shaft 44 is freely rotatable withinknob 48, outer drive-shaft 47, drive Wheel 49 and element 51). GuideWire 51 is secured to slider element 27, engaged with drive Wheel 49,and translationally movable in response to rotation of control knob 48.

Turning to Figures 3 and 4, it can be seen that slider element 26 isprovided with a C-shaped finger portion 24 having an opening 52 thereinthrough which the end region 53 of flexible rod major portion isslidably projected to allow for the angular positioning and horizontalmovement of end region 53 while obtaining vertical displacement thereof.

Preferably, flexible rods 13 and 17 are disposed in proximity with botheach other and graph 10, and move within parallel planes to aid theoperator in the comparative disposition of the flexible rods for thepurpose of obtaining the desired stereophonic response from the twoseparated speaker systems which are driven by the two amplifier systems.

Returning to Figure 1, it can be seen that the bass responsecharacteristics are controlled and indicated for the two separateamplifier systems by apparatus identical to that of Figure 2, being themirror image thereof in Figure 1.

Of course, in actual practice, the only apparatus of Figure 1 visibleoutside the cabinet containing the apparatus would be the flexible rods,the graph, and the control knobs. All of the gear and wheel systemswould be disposed behind a cover-plate for the cabinet and chassis.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to'those skilled in the art thatchanges and modifications may be made without departing from thisinvention in its broader aspects, and, therefore, the aim in theappended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. in combination, a planar graph having first and second rectangularcoordinate axes each representing a respective electrical condition, aplurality of pairs of flexible indicating rods disposed in proximitywith said graph, each of said flexible rods having a minor portion and amajor portion, said minor portions being fixedly disposed with respectto both each other and said graph, said major portions being adapted forselective displacement in respective planes parallel to said graph andeach other, a plurality of independently rotationally adjustableelectrical controls, and a plurality of means intercoupling saidelectrical controls with respective ones of said flexible rods forvarying the dispositions of said major portions of said rods in responseto the rotational displacements of said controls to indicate visuallythe electrical phenomena resulting from the adjustments of saidcontrols, said plurality of intercoupling means each including a sliderelement having means for slidably retaining said major portion of arespective one of said flexible rods, said slider elements each beingadapted for translational displacement with respect to each other andsaid graph, a plurality of guide wires each secured to a respective oneof said slider elements, and a plurality of pairs of drive means, eachof said drive means being cooperably associated with a respective one ofsaid electrical controls and a respective one of said guide wires, eachof said pairs of drive means being cooperably associated with arespective one of said pairs of flexible indicating rods, and each ofsaid pairs of drive means comprising first and second drive wheels andfirst and second concentric shafts, each of said guide wires beingdisposed about a respective one of said drive wheels in frictionalrelationship, and each of said shafts being connected to a respectiveone of said electrical controls.

2. Apparatus for visually displaying the bass and treble responsecharacteristics of each of a pair of amplifier systems in respectivedriving relationship to a pair of separately located speaker systemsadapted for stereophonic reproduction including, in combination: aplanar graph having rectangular coordinate axes representing frequencyversus gain; first and second flexible indicating rods each having abass indicating portion, a treble indicating portion, and a minorcentral portion; mounting means securing said minor central portions ofsaid flexible indicating rods in fixed proximal relationship withrespect to said graph at a central region thereof; first and secondindependently rotationally adjustable bass controls; first and secondindependently rotationally adjustable treble controls; first, second,third, and fourth means intercoupling said first bass control, saidsecond bass control, said first treble control and said second treblecontrol, respectively, with said bass portion of said first indicatingrod, said bass portion of said second indicating rod, said trebleportion of said first indicating rod, and said treble portion of saidsecond indicating rod, respectively, Whereby said portions of said rodsare varied in dispositions with respect to said graph in response to therotational displacements of said controls to indicate visually therespective response characteristics resulting from the adjustments ofsaid controls, said intercoupling means each including a slider elementhaving means for slidably retaining said major portion of a respectiveone of said flexible rods, said slider element being adapted fortranslational displacement, and a guide wire attached to said sliderelement; a first drive means cooperatively associated with said firstand second inter-coupling means; and a second drive means cooperativelyassociated With said third and fourth intercoupling means, each of saiddrive means comprising first and second drive wheels and first andsecond concentric shafts, each of said guide wires being disposed abouta respective one of said drive wheels in frictional relationship, andeach of said shafts being connected to a respective one of saidelectrical controls.

Bennett Feb. 19, 1957 Jahns July 1, 1958

